Now that the deadline for on-line voting has passed. If one has not voted, voting can be done in person at the meeting on Wednesday in Toronto. If you have voted on-line and would like to change your vote, not sure if you can do it at the meeting in person.
However, it's my guess that it would be a tight race between YES and NO, since the POG is at 1171/oz, G=23.65 x 0.1755 = $4.15, PRB = 4.23, hence new PRB = $0.08/s (cash value = $0.20). Note: About 1 year ago PRB was at ~$4.00/s with a much lower resource estimate; now with new drilling on the extension and the lands acquired from the deal with the lumber people the resource has grown, especially in the high grade zone, we would expect a higher price for PRB (nominally $7/s, rather than $5/s first offer would be more acceptable).
Actually my target was $10/s, and I am willing to wait for another year with a NO result. The resource will grow for sure, but essentially the bet was on an increase of POG, for which the leverage of an intact/surviving PRB would be much higher than if it was absorped in G (~2% of G). Aslo we should keep in mind that we still have ~4Moz low grade (<1gpt) resource outside the current pit configuration that deal only with most of the high grades and the "halo" lower grade (~1gpt) zone. The low grades would become significant (economically viable) for POG>1300/oz.
With a low ball offer from G, and our BoD did not appear to have shopped PRB around for a better deal before jumping head first for G offer, there is a nagging feeling that the deal was "set up" for the benefit of G and others (and not retail shareholders).
It's a common and prudent practice to hire a firm to look around for better offers, or they could do that themseleves since board members have enough connections to make a few phone calls. Since there was no explanation, it would be natural to assume that the BoD did not do its DD before acception a single offer (There was a "fairness" assessment but this was done after the fact, and for the purpose of showing that an assessment was carried out (superficial in my opinion, but you should read Appendix D to form your own opinion). Note: Appendix D is not a comparison, i.e. against other offers.
If there was no other offers after a comprehensive research, then the PRB BoD should say so (e.g. "we searched but we could not find"). At least this would demonstrate that the BoD has done a thorough DD before accepting G offer.
It's interesting to note that the people responsible for collecting the votes have called me several times and left a couple of messages. The call stopped after I have voted, presumably they have a list of sharehoders who have not voted. They also know the number of shares for each shareholders. In another example, a company (name withheld) wanted a YES vote badly enough, that in addition to the calls from the firm that they hired to solicit the vote, the company VP made a personal effort drumming up support for the YES side (I gave in, and I went for a YES in that case, lol!).
It's now down to the wire, and we will know the results soon enough.
Anyone here plans to attend the Special Meeting? If so, kindly report back the results and any relevant discussions. Much appreciated.
goldhunter
